BlackBerry and PayPal have partnered on a service to allow mobile payments through BBM Chats.
Users will now be able to connect a PayPal account to the BBM service by selecting the ‘Send Money’ icon.
A PayPal icon will then be available directly in the messenger service, with users able to enter the amount of money and hit send to transfer it to another user.
The PayPal app does not need to be installed on the device, but users will only be able to send to others who have their PayPal accounts connect to BBM.
"Whether you’re paying a roommate back for rent or splitting dinner with friends, buying a group gift or sending your kid some spending money, sending money with PayPal through BBM is easy because it’s where your conversation is already happening," commented Matt Gromada, PayPal’s Director of Consumer Product Marketing.
BlackBerry‘s announcement follows the addition of payments to Facebook Messenger in the US in July. In contrast to the new BlackBerry offering, Messenger requires users to add card details to the account.
"May be it will overcome mistrust in mobile payments for some,"said Bob Tarzey, analyst at Quocirca. "It sounds to me like it will be limited to payments between the small loyal group of BBM users and not much use to anyone else.
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"With the banks pushing mobile banking hard, including making sure it is secure, there will be plenty of competition that allows anyone with a bank account to make a transfer to anyone else with a bank account (mobile or not). That is a much, much larger community.
The service is being trialled as beta version for select BBM users in Canada, but it will soon be available in other countries worldwide.
